INTERNATIONAL MUSICIAN
AND RECORDING WORLD INTERVIEW

By Vivki Greenleaf and Stan Hyman
December, 1982

At first glance, Rick Springfield might appear a somewhat recent newcomer on the Pop/Rock charts. However, Springfield's debut on the American music charts was 10 years ago with "Speak To The Sky", a number-one Australian hit that subsequently reached Top 20 in America. At the time, stardom seemed imminent. Through a series of ill-advised publicity maneuvers by management and record companies, however, Springfield struggled for eight years before "Jessie's Girl" became a number-one hit and a follow-up to his initial chart success. Several more top hits followed in quick succession. With a 1982 Grammy Award for best Rock Vocal Performance for "Jessie's Girl" - winning over such staunch competition as Bruce Springsteen, who was nominated for The River - he has been lauded by his peers as well as his fans.

Springfield's original recording efforts in the US were hindered by record companies which - overlooking his versatile musical talents; (he plays lead and rhythm guitar, bass, and keyboards) - persistently promoted him as "the next David Cassidy" inadvertently labeling his music as pure Pop, despite his broad background in Blues, Rock and Heavy Metal. Deciding to control his own destiny, he made a break from management ties that left him unable to record for three years. Springfield began acting to pay the rent - eventually landing a part on the popular soap opera, General Hospital - but continued to write and record in a home studio. In 1980, a demo tape reached the ears of an RCA executive who quickly signed him.

Originally, Springfield made his professional debut in Australia with the Jordy Boys, an unpolished Blues band located in Jordanville, a rough suburb of Melbourne. At age 16, he was guarded protectively by the 20 to 25-year-old band members, many of whom had jail records and were frequently involved in brawls. When Springfield decided to leave the band a year later to join Rock House - a Rock 'n' Roll show band which toured Vietnam and performed for troops stationed in war zones - several friends of the Jordy Boys threatened to break his legs. When not performing during the three-and-a-half month stay in Vietnam, Springfield and the other bandmembers accompanied soldiers they had befriended on dangerous missions; once he almost blew up the band with a hand grenade. Returning from Vietnam, the group disbanded when one of the members became ill and later died from a lung disease he contracted while on tour.

Several of the bandmembers formed a short-lived, top-40 band, Wickedy Wak, to make some money. The band provided Springfield with his initial recording experience, but the record wasn't released due to interband tensions. The group disbanded when Springfield was contacted by Zoot - an established Pop band, with a hit already to its credit - and was asked to replace the group's guitarist. Due to the influences of Led Zeppelin, Zoot quickly turned Heavy Metal. It became one of Australia's premiere bands and went on to record five or six hits that topped the Australian charts.

Saving up some softer material unsuitable for Zoot's sound, Springfield recorded the solo ballad, "Speak To The Sky", which brought him to the attention of Capitol Records, which initially signed Springfield in the US. The ballad was re-issued as the title track of his premiere American LP.

Springfield predicts that his next recording effort will return to the soft sound of that album; more keyboards and ballads. IM&RW caught up with Springfield following a grueling schedule of television recordings and concert dates. We spoke to him following a recent concert in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

IM&RW: The succession of musical styles you've adopted during your career encompassed R&B, Heavy Metal, ballads and Pop/Rock. You seem very versatile.
RS: Basically it all comes down to songs. I write songs that I like. I don't really write in any particular style. I just write songs that I like about things that happened to me and hopefully, I put them in a way that people like. Hit records are what it's all about.

IM&RW: The first group you were a member of was rough Rhythm and Blues group in Australia; rough in the literal sense.
RS: The Jordy Boys was the first band I played with regularly. It was a band from the suburbs of Jordanville, which was a real rough suburb of Melbourne. I was 16 and they were all 20-25. A couple of them had been in jail. There were all these drugs and I had never even heard of drugs. But they were real protective of me, 'cause I was the young kid; the young hotshot guitar player. They introduced me to Howlin' Wolf, Lightning Hawkins and Django Rheinhart - well, Django's not Blues - but a lot of things that I probably wouldn't have listened to at that age. It was a real strong influence on me.

IM&RW: When did you leave the group?
RS: I left the Jordy Boys for Rock House. Some friends of the Jordy Boys threatened to break my legs if I left that band. But I'll never forget; the guy that I thought was the toughest and meanest of the guys hanging around with the band - they were always getting into fights - came up to me just before I left and said, 'listen your future's not with this band. Go where you need to and don't worry.' I always remembered that.

IM&RW: What type of band was Rock House?
RS: It was a 50s revival band. The lead singer did Elvis impersonations and shit like that. We'd dress up and play Big Bopper and Chuck Berry. We were touring Vietnam and performing for troops. It was rather intense. We were there for three-and-a-half months. We got shot at and into a lot of dangerous situations. We went out with the choppers on mission with some guys we had become friendly with. We stayed overnight in the bunkers when they were getting attacked. We did a lot of dangerous things and could have easily gotten ourselves killed. I almost blew up the band with a hand grenade and we shot every gun there. It was a mixture between total fear and cowboys and Indians.

IM&RW: At age 17, your mother must have been thrilled.
RS: I wanted to keep a diary, so what I did was write home all the time and tell them everything. They told me later that they were just shitting. I'd write home and say, 'Oh, a funny thing happened, I almost killed the band was a hand grenade today.'

IM&RW: When you came back from Vietnam, you joined Zoot, which eventually led to the recording contract in the US.
RS: When I came back from Vietnam, the band split up, because one of the bandmembers caught a terminal lung disease and died half a year later. The band split up because he was sick. I formed a short-lived band called Wickedy Wak and we were basically a show band. The band used to dress up in silly clothes. It was basically at Top-40 band. It was when I first started recording, I was lead vocalist and we recorded a record, but it never got released because the band split up. There was a bit of internal jealousy.

IM&RW: So that's when you joined Zoot?
RS: A guy from Zoot phoned and said 'We've lost our guitar player. Would you like to play with us?' They already had a hit record. We went on to turn out five or six records and become one of the top bands for a while. But we were still making only about $80 a night. It started out as a Pop band, but when Zeppelin came on the scene, we changed our tune fast (laughs). Our biggest hit - if you cam imagine it was a horrendous Heavy Metal rendition of "Eleanor Rigby", that I arranged with riffs and everything. It was a pretty frightening sound, but I guess it was happening at the time.



IM&RW: When did you record the ballad that became a number one hit in Australia and subsequently a top 15 hit in the US?
RS: I left Zoot and recorded a solo single called, "Speak To The Sky". One of my managers sent that with a bunch of demos to Capitol Records and they signed me. Those demos became my first US album, Beginnings. They were basically ballads that I couldn't use in Zoot.

IM&RW: Once you had attained the level of success in Australia, why did you leave to come to the US?
RS: America was always the place for me to be. Australia was a real small scene. You knew everybody. To a certain extent, it was like putting on a show for your parents. It was like a natural progression.

IM&RW: You've gone through several record companies over the years and eventually you were involved in a legal entanglement that left you unable to record for three years. What happened?
RS: My management had sold me as the next David Cassidy. I did some tracks the record companies didn't like at all 'cause they were too Rock 'n' Roll. I was pretty much not in charge of what was going on as far as business went. All the business was being conducted - which I let happen- without me really being involved. I called up my manger and said I wanted out. I just was not happy with the way it was going. It was going down hill. I had not been in charge of it and I wanted to be involved in it. I went to litigation for the next three years and that's how long I was unable to record.

IM&RW: It seems like acting was a way to pay the rent while you were unable to record?
RS: The acting did come as a way to keep creativity going inside me 'cause I ran into so many roadblocks musically. I couldn't just be an actor, it's just a nebulous thing. As a musician, you can sit down, alone in your room, pick up an instrument and create something right there. A lot of my truths come to me when I'm alone. But as an actor, you're not going to do a scene; it's like sitting alone and pretending that you're a lemon.

IM&RW: Has acting hindered your musical career?
RS: No. Occasionally I start to feel like I'm not giving 100 per cent and that pisses me off, but I handle it pretty well most of the time. Music's number one and always will be. I'd quit acting if there had to be a choice made.

IM&RW: Has acting helped you musical career?
RS: Acting has helped me a bit on stage, because it's made me a lot more loose. When I'm singing a song, I'm now aware that there's a story to it and try to put myself back to where I was when I wrote the song, which I never used to do before. I remember when I first played live in America. Someone came up to me and asked why I smiled when I sang a song about pain. I said, 'Oh.' So I've learned things like that.

IM&RW: You continued recording in a home studio until RCA exec's heard your demos and signed you in 1980; Working Class Dog topped the charts. It was eight years since 'Speak To The Sky' was on the charts. Why do you think you've succeeded now?
RS: It's just being at the right place at the right time and having something to give. I don't think that I'm any more talented than anybody else. It's about 80 per cent luck and timing. I thought it came down to getting a shot. Everybody will have their shot - their chance - if they stay long enough. I've always believed that. I believed it back in 1972, and I kept on believing it until 1980. I knew that if I just stayed in there, kept true to my goals, kept writing, and did my homework, eventually the timing would be right.

IM&RW: You seem to undersell yourself. "Jessie's Girl" earned you a 1982 Grammy Award over such laudable competition as Bruce Springsteen, who was nominated for The River. What were your feelings about that?
RS: Awards have never been a real important thing to me. They're real nice. It was a great thrill, but it was like 'Oh, great' and that was pretty much the extent of it. The platinum album was the biggest thrill that I've gotten, because that meant many people liked what I did. But it was a nice thrill. You get precious little to look back on when you're 90, so I can look at my wall and say, 'Yeah, I did that.' A Grammy is one of those kind of things. A Grammy is one of those kind of things. Bruce Springsteen can certainly sing better than I can. I thought that I'd get nominated in the New Artist category, but I guess they didn't consider me a new artist.

IM&RW: You're frequently confused with Springsteen, aren't you?
RS: Yeah. It started with the similarity in names and the fact that we're both musicians. I mainly heard it at acting classes from people who weren't that into music. They would often confuse us and say, 'Rick Springfield, Yeah, I've heard of you. Born To Run, Right?' No, no, no. It got to the point of being ridiculous. Once, when I was trying to do anything for money, I was at this interview for a commercial. I never did any commercials, but I certainly tried out for a lot of them. A girl who I had known for about two years, but hadn't seen me for a while was there. She walked out and said, 'Bruce.' It was a real low point. It just really hit me, so I went home and wrote this song, 'She Called Me Bruce'. All the incidents are true. I'm sure Springsteen isn't hearing, 'Are you Rick Springfield?'

IM&RW: Has your sudden success been difficult to deal with?
RS: No. It's pretty much what I had imagined it would be. And I certainly had a long time to think about it and wonder what it would be like and how I'd handle it. I've certainly seen all the ways not to go from other people. Walking into a restaurant and having people turn round and look at you like you're blue; having people scream about you or wanting you to kiss their baby or whatever, is not very real feeling.

IM&RW: What are your strongest attributes as a performer?
RS: My songwriting and what I put into it when I sing. Having a good voice isn't everything. I put in a lot of heart and can express a song well, 'cause I know what I'm singing about. I know what I meant when I wrote it. Songwriting is the thing that I'm proudest of. Someone once reviewed them as paranoid love songs (laughs). I wasn't aware it was sneaking in so much. I know I have a hang up with that and I'm sure hang-ups always come out in your writing.

IM&RW: You're planning to return to the studio. Any intentions to recapture the softer sound - acoustic guitar, keyboards, ballads - apparent in your early work?
RS: Yeah. It's really funny. I always thought I'd become more know for my ballads more than my Rock songs. All my early stuff was my best stuff. It's kind of ironic that my first four singles were up-tempo, guitar-orientated things. I'll be doing different things. I feel like I'm starting to get a particular sound, so on this one, I'm going to experiment. I feel like I have a little more leeway now.

IM&RW: Are you going for a live feel on your records?
RS: No. I think that the feel is in the drums anyway. That's where the feel comes from. You've just got to be tight with the drums. That's where all the power comes from. The reason I like recording like we did Working Class Dog is that you get it dead on. I love that. It just depends on the players, because we also got it dead on when we recorded Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet.

IM&RW: What guitars are you using on stage?
RS: Gretsches, a Strat, and a couple of back-up Strats. I've always liked hollow-body guitars. I started playing then when I started playing guitar. I started out in a Blues band. I always love the sound of them. I like a light guitar too. I don't like to feel weighted down, because I get a real light feeling on stage, like I don't weigh anything. I hate the feeling of a heavy guitar and hollow bodies are real light. I have a couple of Gretsches, which I use mainly on stage. I found them purely by accident in New York at Manny's and I thought, 'God, that's a weird looking guitar. I think I'll get it.' So, I bought it and took it home. Once I took all the garbage off of it - it had a lot of effects and stuff - it was a great-sounding guitar. It plays real good too. Gretsch had gone out of business and I had never seen this model before. I went back two weeks later and there was one exactly the same, only a different color in the store down the street. They wouldn't sell it to me because it was Christmas and they didn't want to mess up their window display. Eventually we got it out of them. I like Strats - old Strats - in addition to these two Gretsches of mine.

IM&RW: Any special effects on stage?
RS: I have extra, super-loud pickups in the guitars and I crank the amps.

IM&RW: What type of amps?
RS: We have custom amps that are basically Marshall guts. They're open-back with these speakers in them. We have a guy who makes them of course.

IM&RW: Can you detail the four-track studio set-up that you used to record some of your original demos? We understand that it wasn't exactly state-of-the-art.
RS: Well, the original demo set-up that I had was just a TEAC four-track with a little bitty mixer and just the amplifier and speakers from my record player. I used cushions for drums, cued with a little MXR mixer. People were amazed that the drums were cushions and a pillow. I originally got the idea because I couldn't afford to have anybody play drums. I didn't have a drum machine or anything and I wanted drums. So I had cushions and a pillow that I used for snare and a bass drum. I just Eqed them. I used to put cushions down, then piano, and I had this old $40 bass guitar that I played. That's how I did all my original demos. My studio now is a little more updated.

IM&RW: Can you detail that?
RS: I use all Fostex stuff. I have an eight-track Fostex, a digital, a two-track to mix onto, an eight-track board and JBL studio monitors.

IM&RW: You're accomplished as a musician on a variety of instruments.
RS: I started on guitars, then played bass for a while and then began playing keyboards. I've been playing guitar since I was about 13. I'm pretty much at home on the guitar. I'm a better rhythm player than I am a lead player, but you can't play for 20 years without being able to play a few licks. Guitar has always been my main instrument. Bass was a natural thing for me to pick up after guitar. I used to listen to the bass on records. But the keyboards I learned by transposing guitar chords to the piano. I figured it out note by note and then just got more proficient at chords, basically playing occasionally on records and when I write.

IM&RW: Do you play each of the instruments on your albums?
RS: On Wait for Night I did. It was just Nigel Olsen and me. Nigel Olsen played drums and I played keyboards, bass and guitar. On Working Class Dog I didn't play any keyboards, only bass and guitar. I played about 98 percent of the bass and all the guitars, with the exception of Neil Geraldo on "Jessie's Girl". I just put down the drums, playing a rough guitar with it and then dubbed everything over the top. Whereas Success Hasn't Spoiled Me was more of a band situation. We had the drums, keyboards, bass, and guitars all in there once and used most of it.

IM&RW: How did it come about that you cut "Jessie's Girl" with Neil?
RS: Well, Keith (Olsen) had just finished Crimes of Passion and Neil was just hanging around before they went on tour. I went over to Keith's house and played the demo of "Jessie's Girl" for him and he liked it. He said, 'It's a hit.' I had just gotten the deal with RCA and I was looking for a producer. Keith said he had time to do two tracks in between Pat (Benatar) and the Babys albums. In addition to "Jessie's Girl", he brought me the Sammy Hager tune, "I've Done Everything For You". Neil was available, and Keith asked me to work with him.

IM&RW: Those two tracks, produced by Keith, became two of your biggest hits.
RS: I've learned more from doing "Jessie's Girl" and "I've Done Everything For You", both of those sessions, than I've learned during the past seven years of recording. He taught me a real lot about arranging a song. I have the original demos of "Jessie's Girl" at home. All the parts eventually appeared in the song almost verbatim. But I just write everything, throw it into the demos and eventually cut some things out.
Keith's very in tune with the kind of music that I write, and he taught me how to structure it all. Plus, as far as production goes, he's super. He's real sensitive about the vocal performance. He sets up all the instrumental sounds, they they're out of the way and the vocal is the most important thing. Whereas with a lot of engineers-turned-producers, the instrumental sound is basically in the way all along and the vocal is just another instrument. That shouldn't be so, because the vocal performance is everything on the record. The song and the vocal performance.

IM&RW: Are you using different guitars in the studio?
RS: I generally use different guitars in the studio. I have a custom Schecter that I use, but it's too brittle to use on stage. In the studio it's great. It's real clean, and it has a real nice edge to it. But with my amp set-up, it doesn't work half as well as the Gretsches.

IM&RW: What type of bass?
RS: Most of the time I use a Precision. It was Neil Geraldo's Precision that I used on Working Class Dog. It's a great make.

IM&RW: Can you describe your guitar style?
RS: Very, very hard. I use the heaviest strings that you can get. My fingers gain amazing strength on stage for some reason. I've gone out with lesser strings and they just feel like rubber. I have to have real heavy strings, because I have a lot of energy on stage and it transmits to my guitar playing. I generally break two of three strings during a show. But I have the two Gretsches that I switch around. And I love Rock 'n' Roll bass players who play with a pick. I always play with a pick and I play real hard. I just hit.

IM&RW: What type of keyboards?
RS: Well, on home demos, I have this real old Oberheim. It's like a serial 7; this real old horse of a thing. But the sounds are great; you get some real good sounds out of it; real fat sounds. I use that in the studio quite a bit too. But they're real cumbersome and they're not practical for stage anymore, because there are ones that you can hit a button on and you get a new sound. I can't believe that there are electronic keyboards already.

IM&RW: Drums?
RS: I'm getting a Linn drum machine that I'm going to use on demos.

IM&RW: Does your music translate well from the studio to the stage?
RS: I don't think that there are very many bands that I've seen, that if I didn't already know their music, I wouldn't know what the hell they were singing about. That's the nature of the beast, when they start to turn the volume up, that's what happens. A live event for me is mainly visual anyway. It's being there and the energy. I put out as much energy as I can on stage. It's an event, not a listening party.